'A selection of our finest writing about the mystery and majesty of the Australian bush.

'Since settlers and explorers first started recording their experiences of the Australian bush, is has loomed as large in our imaginations as in our landscapes. Sometimes dark and forbidding, sometimes lush and beautiful, this terrain and the people who venture into it fascinate us and draw us in. The exploration of our forests and outback is the source of some of our favourite stories.

'In The Penguin Book of Australian Bush Writing, prolific writer and editor John Ross has collected tales about the bush from all over our wide land. Richard Flanagan pays homage to the "golden wood" industry of Huon pine in Tasmania, Henry Lawson journeys by train from Sydney to Bourke, A.B. Facey works the land on Western Australian frontier, and Miles Franklin describes the menace of the fauna in the countryside of her childhood.' (From the publisher's website.)